menatwarfandomcom-20200215-history
Kiam Razif
Kiam Muhammed bin Razif (Jawi: كيعام موهممد بن رازيف; October 22, 1920 - November 9, 1996) was a Malaysian soldier who fought in World War II, the Malayan Emergency and the Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation. Early life and family Kiam Razif was born in 1920 in the city of Kuatan in the state of Pahang on the Malay peninsula. His family, ethnic Pahang Malays, were very prominent in local religion and politics, with ties to both the state Sultanate and the British colonial administration. His father, Razif Faizal, was a Sunni Imam and a scholar in Islamic thought. Kiam originally wished to join the Muslim clergy and follow his father, and from a young age he studied Islamic texts and Sunni doctrine. He also took a particular interest in the history of Malaya and the Malay peoples. In 1939, Kiam applied to the University of Malaya, wishing to study Islam further and eventually become a scholar. However, he was turned down. Unsure of what to do, Kiam enlisted in the Malay Regiment, a local defense force trained and funded by the British Army. Military service World War II With the growing threat of invasion by the Empire of Japan, the British authorities in Malaya began preparing the country's defenses to resist an attack. Kiam's unit, the 1st Battalion, Malay Regiment, was headquartered in Singapore and carried out training exercises in the event of war. By 1939, the battalion was under the command of the Malaya Infantry Brigade (later the 1st Malaya Infantry Brigade in 1940) and subsequently of the Fortress Singapore Division. Kiam, though enlisting as a private, shot up the ranks and was even given rudimentary officer training, being commissioned as a Lieutenant in the regiment in early 1941. On December 8, 1941, Japan invaded Malaya. Lieutenant Kiam and his men, temporarily on airfield security duty in the north of the country, were some of the first Allied soldiers to respond to the invasion. In the Battle of Kota Bharu, the Malayans, along with the other Commonwealth troops, tried to hold the Japanese back, first on the beaches, and then from the airfield itself. However, they were soon forced to retreat, fighting a small delaying action against the Japanese at the town of Pengkalan Chepa before falling back to the south. Regrouping at Kuala Krai, the Malayans made a fighting retreat down the length of the peninsula, fighting a number of small battles with the Japanese as they went. By January 1942, Lieutenant Kiam and his men had crossed the Johore Strait and prepared to hold Singapore against the enemy assault. Early in February 1942, the Japanese crossed the strait, beginning the Battle of Singapore. Lieutenant Kiam and the rest of the 1st Brigade were held in reserve on the southern part of the island, and were not immediately engaged. However, as the Japanese pushed inland, they came in contact with the Malayans at the Battle of Pasir Panjang. As Singapore's last line of defense, Kiam led his men in a desperate action to hold off the Japanese. They retreated to the Bukit Chandu hill and made a last stand, heavily outnumbered and surrounded by Japanese troops. The next day, all British Commonwealth forces in Singapore surrendered to the Japanese, and the campaign ended in an Allied defeat. By the time of the surrender, the 1st Brigade had been all but wiped out. No longer in command of any recognizable military formation, Kiam and a few survivors withdrew into the jungle and evaded Japanese attempts to capture them. Later in 1942, they recieved word that a resistance group, the Pahang Wataniah, was being formed in Kiam's home state to fight the Japanese occupation. Crossing the Johore in secret, Kiam and his compatriots made their way through the jungles of Malaya to Pahang, where they located the PW group in the town of Batu Malim, where the organization was headquartered. At Batu Malim, Kiam quickly learned the various methods of guerrilla warfare and was soon engaged in fighting the occupation. Initially, He taught combat drill and small-unit tactics to the Wataniah's new recruits, before taking on a more active role. By 1943, his resistance unit was regularly ambushing Japanese patrols and convoys and raiding supply depots for equipment. Sizeable Japanese and Malayan collaborator forces attempted to surround and destroy the resistance fighters, but Kiam led his group to evade large troop concentrations and attack where the enemy was most vulnerable. In addition to fighting on the front lines, Kiam continued to train new recruits and distribute anti-Japanese propaganda to get the local population on the side of the resistance. The Pahang Wataniah frequently collaborated with the Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army, a much larger resistance movement made up of ethnic Chinese Communists. Kiam and the MPAJA fought against the Japanese together, but were often at odds with each other. As a force organized and backed by the Pahang Sultanate, the PW often had to protect the Sultan and the royal family from Communist assassination attempts. The PW was also supported by the British, and Kiam established contact with British forces early in 1944 in order to recieve critical supplies and finances. As the war in the Pacific turned against Japan, the PW stepped up its attacks. They ambushed Japanese forces with increasing regularity and gained more and more support from the local Malayan population. Reports of a British landing on the peninsula meant renewed efforts to assist the liberating force. However. Before such an invasion could occur, the Empire of Japan surrendered to the Allies on August 15, 1945. Between the time of surrender and the landing of British troops in September, the PW came in direct conflict with the MPAJA. The two resistance movements fought over control of villages and towns, and each attempted hold the most territory by the time the British arrived. British troops landed in Singapore in Operation Tiderace, and the whole of the Malay peninsula was liberated shortly after. Kiam assisted the British in the paroling of Japanese prisoners of war and the reestablishment of law and order in the rural parts of Pehang. With the Japanese gone, the British authorities set up a temporary government until such time as Malaya was able to return to self-governance. British Military Administration and Malayan Union With the dissolution of the major resistance groups following the liberation, Kiam was welcomed back into the British Army, although initially without any specifically defined assignment. He was kept extremely busy assisting the authorities in both military and administrative matters, including disarming remaining Japanese troops, suppressing the black market, dealing with the MPAJA, and curbing crime and lawlessness. In the last, the British and Malays were only partially successful. In April 1946, the temporary British government was replaced by the Malayan Union. The new government was very unpopular with the Malays, as it stripped the Sultans of most of their power. Although Kiam personally disapproved of the Union, he felt duty-bound to serve it. Around this time, the Malay Regiment was reconstituted, and Kiam was again elected to serve in the 1st Battalion, this time as a Captain in command of one of the companies. In February 1948, the unpopular Union was disbanded and replaced by the Federation of Malaya. By now, Malaya was in the midst of an economic crisis that saw, among other events, the rise of the Malayan Communist Party. Malayan Emergency In June 1948, members of the Communist Party attacked British nationals and their property in Perak. A state of emergency was declared and the country was put under martial law. Captain Kiam and his unit played a major role in the military crackdown on dissident leftist movements and began to round up and arrest known Communists and their sympathizers in the state of Perak. Later in the year, the Malayan National Liberation Army was formed as the militant wing of the Communist Party and the successor of the MPAJA. The MNLA soon began a guerilla war against the Malayan and British authorities, and proved very effective against the scattered and ill-prepared government forces. Captain Kiam and his men attempted to hold their ground against the MNLA, but due to the guerrillas' use of the jungle and support from the local Chinese population, the Malay forces lost significant ground in the early part of the war. By 1950, however, the security forces had consolidated somewhat effectively, and began to threaten the MNLA's dominance over the population. In 1951, the MNLA was on the backfoot and the Malayan people had begun to turn against them. Kiam and his unit meanwhile continued jungle operations against the Communists, including sweeps, ambushes, and small-unit raids. This proved increasingly effective, and Kiam and his men were responsible for large numbers of hideouts searched, stockpiles destroyed, and terrorists killed or captured. By 1955, negiotiations at the Baling Talks had broken down, further weakening the MNLA. In August 1957, Malaya's independence from the British Empire had a similar effect on the Communist movement's moral cause. All this time, Kiam and his men stepped up their attacks on the MNLA, pushing them out of most of Perak and into the marshlands of Teluk Anson by 1958. When this pocket of resistance was declared eliminated, the Malayan soldiers moved north, chasing the remnants of the MNLA forces to the border of Thailand, where the remainder either fled, or were killed or captured. By 1960, the state of emergency was declared over and the Communist threat had been eliminated. For their part in crushing the insurgency, Kiam's unit was retitled the Royal Malay Regiment. Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation In the early 1960s, it was decided the northern parts of Borneo would unite with Malaya (now Malaysia) and join the federation. This was opposed by the dictatorial regime in Indonesia, which initiated a period of confrontation against Malaysia on the island of Borneo. Low-intensity warfare was already ongoing by the time Malaysian troops landed in Borneo in September 1963. Kiam, recently promoted to Major, was sent to the island with the 3rd Battalion, Royal Malay Regiment, and the soldiers set up headquarters in the town of Tawau in the state of Sabah. Kiam was posted to the outpost at Kalabakan, and from there the Malaysians kept on the lookout for Indonesian infiltrators. In December, their position was attacked by a sizeable force of Indonesians. Kiam and his men fought back but retreated to defend Tawau, from where they launched counterattacks and slowly rounded up the infiltrators. Throughout 1964, the Malaysians of Kiam's 3rd Brigade, along with the other British Commonwealth troops stationed on Borneo, took part in numerous cross-border raids during which they would catch the Indonesian guerrillas off guard and inflict casualties. Raids and counter-raids continued throughout the year, as the Indonesians escalated the conflict. In 1965, the scale of attacks increased, and Major Kiam and his men were forced to work around the clock to foil the Indonesians' constant attempts at infiltration. However, later in the year, due to regime change in Indonesia itself, the conflict began to ease. By early 1966, contact with the enemy was very infrequent, although Kiam and his unit remained on alert in Borneo. In May, the confrontation was declared over and Kiam returned to the mainland in August. Retirement Major Kiam Razif retired from the Malaysian Army on January 9, 1967. A soldier for twenty-eight years, he had displayed remarkable skill and competence as a commander in the field, besting the Japanese, the Malayan Communists, and the Indonesians in conventional, guerrilla, and counterinsurgency warfare. Later life In 1954, Kiam married Aishah binti Fawzi. They had three children, Mahmoud, Hussein, and Safiya. After the end of his military service, Kiam dedicated himself to his family as well as to his studies of Islam. In 1978, he was given an honorary degree from the Islamic University of Malaysia for his writings. In 1968, with the resumption of the Communist Party's insurgency against the Malaysian government, Kiam offered his services to the Army should they need him again. He was reportedly eager to settle the score with an old enemy once again. However, the Communists were not able to trigger the kind of national emergency they had in 1948 and the low-level conflict was mostly handled by the police until its end in 1989. Views Kiam was somewhat of a Malay chauvanist, harboring some limited resentment of the Chinese and Indian populations in Malaysia. Though not an overt racist, he had ill feelings towards the Chinese especially, viewing them as responsible for the chaos wreaked on the country during the emergency years. These feelings gradually subsided, and by the 1970s he supported the idea of a multiethnic united Malaysia. Kiam joined the Alliance Party in 1954, and subsequently the Barisan Nasional party in 1973. He was a great admirer of Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, and supported Malaysia's unification with the northern parts of Borneo. Equipment As a soldier of the Malay Regiment during the battles of 1941-1942 against the Japanese, Kiam used the British Short Magazine Lee-Enfield Mk III* bolt-action rifle, the Webley Mk IV revolver, and the Mills No. 36M Mk.I grenade. He also carried a parang knife. During the emergency, Kiam switched to the more modern Lee–Enfield No.4 Mk I rifle, complete with modifications for jungle warfare. During the 1960s, he used an L1A1 Self-Loading Rifle and a Browning Hi-Power automatic pistol.Category:Soldiers in World War II Category:Soldiers in the Malayan Emergency Category:Soldiers in the Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation Category:Malaysian soldiers Category:British Commonwealth soldiers